Tag-teaming Santa Claus

For the past three years, we have attended a Breakfast with Santa at my husband’s alma mater. Our daughter, Zoe, gave little notice to the fat, bearded man when she was 1 and 2 years old, but she happily took a photograph with him, as she did with anyone (she’s a ham).

This year, she’s 3, and she has her own nickname for Santa, “Ho Ho.” She likes seeing him in books, on TV and plastered across storefront windows. But not necessarily in person. We tried to get her to visit the mall Santa but she wanted nothing to do with him. Unsure of how this breakfast would go, we decided that if “Ho Ho” upset her, we’d ignore him and focus on the other activities, such as making ornaments and painting a snowman on her hand.

When we first spotted Santa, Zoe started crying and grabbed my leg like it was her only life preserver. That is, until fate intervened; fate disguised as a bubbly, brown-haired girl named Kaitlyn.

Kaitlyn and Zoe are pals. They’ve gone to the pumpkin patch together, shared coin-operated rides at the mall and, for the summer, attended the same preschool. Kaitlyn’s mom told me that she was also nervous about how her daughter would react to Santa.

Getting the two girls to take photographs with Santa seemed like a dicey proposition.

But for some reason, once Zoe and Kaitlyn were together–after eating French toast sticks, coloring pictures of snowmen purple and prancing around like little reindeers in their antler headbands–they could not wait to sit on Santa’s lap.

Which is exactly what they did, grinning and giggling the entire time.

Funny how something can be so scary by yourself but then you add a friend to the mix, and the fear dissipates. This is true for 3 year olds, as well as for their mommies and daddies.

Photo courtesy of Kaitlyn’s daddy. Zoe is on the left, Kaitlyn is on the right.